StudentConnected’s Concept

The concept is one issue that I believe I have not yet made 100% clear what I am aiming to achieve. So far I have talked about the app in a broad range of issues & features, I want to dedicate this focus on that within this blog post.

I wish to create an app to improve the functionality and visual style of Blackboard – ‘studentconnected’ aims to be a companion app that installs new features, improves the graphical design of the app and increases functionality within the app aiming to enhance the average university students experience. Within my proposal I have stated that Blackboard, an educational web portal and learning management system is a definitive inspiration for Student Connected and what it aims to achieve.

To impact productivity & time management positively through the use of creating a simple, fast and effective digital outlet that helps educate, inform and organize university students through faster & smarter learning. The end result of the project is to be left with a digital app that at its core is designed to help university students manage their education easier, helping to save time throughout the day to focus on additional tasks assisting in advancing the individual’s skillset.

It will put the student in a place of power, allowing to customize their workload; letting them see what work needs to be done, when it’s due in and the tasks required to reach that end goal. Alongside offering additional optional articles, videos and audio bytes by tutors to be educated by in a streamlined, easy-to-use & aesthetically pleasing design that entices the student to come back & work harder.

 Why create this app?

Education is subjective, everyone learns at their own speeds in different ways and the best way to accommodate that is to create an environment that sets itself up to be customizable, supporting different styles. Being able to take ownership of your own education and deciding when you complete a task and how you will digest the information presented to you will allow you to thrive. Everyone knows their own learning styles and this app is designed to help hone in on what specifically allows you to have that learning style and adjust the workload to it.

Teachers teach in different manners but the same end goal is there no matter what the delivery. However we can’t pick and choose our tutors and most online information is already created for the masses. StudentConnected aims to help teachers teach you what you need to know without ineffective interfaces and unpromising learning styles that may not fit you. A metaphor to describe it – this app assists in giving you the finest boots, best stamina and leg power to score without ever having to move the goalposts. The app uses powerpoints from lectures and seminars for the conventional method in a shiny new way while also tutoring students individually by pulling from a pool of extra resources, a program that tests students on what they know and more importantly adapts to the way that they learn over time by comparing the effectiveness of different videos, articles and tests to discover, scientifically what works best. Statistical information like this can be used by teachers to fine tune their presentations and methods of teaching.

This app is an improvement of current apps in the market such as ‘Blackboard’ which visually and structurally is undesirable, with ruthless design, no personality or flair and a lack of options to interact with the work presented. StudentConnected aims to bridge the conventional educational apps with the feel and positive progression as seen in other educational apps like Duolingo and Code Academy. Both of which have been proven to engage younger individuals and adults [1]. Apps like these are slowly increasing and StudentConnected fits into this category of being an alternative to the mundane and boring, helping to encourage students to feel rewarded. With the likes of Adobe Generation & Khan Academy having millions invested into them it is a very real possibility that tools such as StudentConnected are helping strive towards a digital classroom or a hybrid between the two to fully engage with everything that there is to offer.

The app will look at the following types of learners and allow tutors as well as students to customize their work and how they consume information:

  • Sensing learners
  • Visual learners
  • Active learners
  • Sequential learners

This idea came from a video created by CGPGrey who delved into what the future of education may look like. A digital Aristotle as he calls it is a platform that all students will use to be educated in a specific way to them that will allow them to grow at 10x the pace than they would being sat in a class of 30 learning from one teacher. Bringing these different learning styles into this app I feel is a way of moving us closer to that destination. You can watch his video here:

This is an important part of the app which will be discussed in detail in a future blog post regarding the apps visual interfaces.